Diadem from the Stars Read Online Free

in her and sick with anger at herself for letting the woman cow her so. All those years, she thought. All those years …
    â€œCustom breaker.” Qumri’s voice was a hate-filled whisper. Aleytys crouched lower over the railing as it whipped at her. “Defiler. Whore-daughter.” The last words were squeezed out in a shrill whine as though rage strangled them in her throat. Aleytys bit her lip and raised her heavy hand.
    â€œCome up here!”
    Stumbling on numb clumsy feet, she halted up the remaining steps.
    A hard nervous hand came out of the dark and slapped with stinging force against her face, slamming her into the newel post.
    â€œStupid animal.” Again and again, underlining the hate-filled syllables, the hand stung her face.
    Aleytys whimpered and tried to cringe away.
    Qumri jerked her onto her feet and slapped her harder, her breath going in and out in harsh squeaks each time she hit.
    Something snapped inside Aleytys. As Qumri’s hand pulled back once more, she wrenched herself free and scrambled away. Just out of arm’s reach she stood up and tossed her head back, anger hot and strong inside her. She laughed.
    Qumri froze, a ludicrous expression of surprise distorting her handsome features.
    â€œWhy, old woman, salkurdeh khatu.…” Aleytys drawled out the words until they became an insult in themselves. “Can’t you get the Azdar to bed you? That why you’re prowling the halls?”
    Qumri shrieked and leaped toward her, fingers curled into claws.
    Hiccuping with hysterical laughter, Aleytys fled down the hall with Qumri squealing behind her. She reached her bedroom and dived through the door just a step ahead of the fury at her heels. Bracing herself, she shoved the door shut in Qumri’s face and dropped the bar into its socket.
    â€œAhai!” She turned and flattened her back against the door, feeling limp as a wrung-out dishrag. “I damn sure better keep out of her way tomorrow.”
    Lifting heavy arms, she hung the shawl on its hook, then crawled back into bed. She lay trembling as her body slowly warmed, staring up at the thick blackness. Triumph flared up a minute, then grayed to ash as she realized that nothing was changed. Nothing at all.
    2
    Hesh bulged steel-blue over the eastern edge of the world a handspan north of Horli’s squashed half-circle. Down in the valley the horans grew a second shadow while the dim red light brightened to a clear blue.
    Under the scattered horans the blocky gav dozing in the pastures snorted and humped onto their feet, snuffling in air that had a liveness and a sparkle that sent the blood burning through one’s veins.
    The Raqsidan wound in leaping silver and green between the massive clan houses whose rings of second-floor windows flickered from black to yellow as the tarik roused the sleepers. As the harsh clangs of the tarik’s bell faded down the hall, Aleytys tumbled out of bed, her feet hitting the floor before her eyes opened. She stretched, yawned, scratched her head, and leaned against the wall blinking gritty eyes.
    Something hard touched her foot. The candlestick. She picked it up, lit it, and set it back on the window ledge. The candle was broken in the middle and tilted at a crazy angle dripping wax in a greasy puddle on the stone.
    The door swung open. Twanit sidled through the narrow opening and padded over to her side of the room. Aleytys patted a yawn and leaned back against the wall. “Up before the bell again?”
    Twanit smiled timidly over her shoulder. “I like the morning, Leyta.” She pushed the panel back and set her hairbrush gently in its precise spot on the narrow shelf inside. Humming softly, she lifted a neatly folded ribbon from another shelf and tied her shining curls back with quick deft fingers. “You Know how I hate being crowded and pushed around,” she finished.
    Sliding the panel shut, she pattered to the head of the bed and began